Seamus Murphy: evaluation

Transcript context

…I have the same issue with Iran. I’ve met many Iranians. They’re quite impressive, very smart, highly successful, especially in America. Yet the country itself is virtually always not on a good track. Clearly, there’s been some negative outside intervention in Iran, but at this point, I can’t really fully believe that’s the main problem. There’s something about Iranian society — which I do not at all understand — that holds back a certain kind of progress. Maybe there’s some attachment to a certain impersonality in public life that they don’t have, or disputes become too fraught, or the country is not sufficiently unified, even though the people are super nice. What is it you think that internally might be the equivalent in Afghanistan? Because there’re plenty of Afghans in Northern Virginia. They’re super nice, they’re attractive, they’ve done very well. At the same time, it is hard for me to believe that Afghanistan’s problems are mainly about foreign intervention. I think in the case of Afghanistan, they’re traumatized. I think there is definitely a trauma. They’ve been at war for over 40 years. Even if you do meet people in Arlington or in DC, or wherever they’re carrying that with them. They’re dealing with family that are still there. This is going to have an effect on you. This is not an easy thing to deal with. Maybe that has something to do with it. In Iran, I suppose, is it the Iranians or is it the theocracy? I don’t know what’s holding it back. They’re not that separate ultimately. Iran is a difficult country to rule; it always has been. There’re so many different groups there, the Azerbaijanis. Maybe they’re afraid if they liberalize, it will collapse into some kind of chaos, or they don’t want to be the next Lebanon or the next Syria. I don’t know.…

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